


Save Me You

by J_33



Series: Saving Us [1]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: 5+1, F/M, injuries, romanogers - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-11
Updated: 2014-08-11
Packaged: 2018-02-12 18:19:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,532
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2119938
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/J_33/pseuds/J_33
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The five times Natasha saved Steve, and the one time he saved her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Save Me You

**Author's Note:**

> This took a while to write since I havnt done one of these in a long time, but enjoy!

1.  
Steve hadn’t known her for very long. His first impression of her was her jumping off his shield, back in New York while aliens and things he has never seen before came out of nowhere.

 _It’ll be fun,_ she had said, despite the obvious doubt in his voice – despite the obvious doubt everywhere.

But she did it anyway, and she closed the portal, and she saved the world, and still no one would thank her on the news, or dye their hair red to honor her, yet if you looked around you would see people with Tony Stark beards, Hulk action figures, and Captain America toy Shields. 

Steve was still new to this century – to this world, but when he looked at Natasha, he saw something old, something he recognized; the same thing he saw in the men he fought besides during World War Two. He saw sacrifice, and will, and courage when she jumped off his shield, and when he looked into her eyes. 

Everything was so different from what it used to be like, but Natasha gave him a sense that maybe some things do stay the same, and maybe things would be okay, and that was the first way Natasha Romanoff saved Steve Rogers.

2.  
It wasn’t his first mission, but he had just started working with Natasha, and things weren’t going as smoothly as Steve had hoped.

Natasha was a great agent, she really was, but she just wasn’t exactly a people person, and that would be an overstatement. He didn’t know if it was because at any given moment, with the snap of her fingers, she could go from being one person to the next. A spy to a teacher, a spy to a dancer, a spy to a wife, but she never seemed to go from being a spy to herself. 

He didn’t know if that was because this job was her life, or her life was this job, but that didn’t really matter to him.

He trusted Natasha, though he could see it in the faces of other agents as she walked through the halls at SHIELD that they didn’t trust her, but Steve just couldn’t see why not. She was great at what she did, even if that wasn’t always clear, so what was the problem?

Fury had just assigned them as partners, and gave them their first mission together. It was a fairly simple one, nothing overly complicated. They were supposed to sneak into some warehouse in Russia that were transporting illegal drugs in and out of the facility, and shut it down. They were scheduled to leave as soon as they finished briefing. Minutes later they walked out the door, but on there way to the helicarrier there were so many whispers. Steve had enhanced hearing thanks to the serum, though he could exactly make out what people were saying, but Natasha didn’t seem to notice at all. 

They eventually got on the carrier, fully equipped and in uniform, and ready to go, but Steve couldn’t keep his curiosity at bay.

He was about to ask a question when Natasha said, “Russia’s a cold place, Cap, but isn’t everything at some point?” 

That was the first thing she said to him since becoming partners, but he didn’t really understand what she was trying to get across. He knew that she was from Russia, or that was what her file said at least, but he decided to drop it, trying to focus on the mission at hand.

Many hours later who would have thought that he would be held at gunpoint by some guy in a fancy suit, with no way to call for back up. He was surrounded as more guns pointed at his head, so he did as they said, and knelt on the ground, as he dropped his shield next to him. Steve had lost contact with Natasha minutes ago.

The men were shouting words that he didn’t understand for what seemed like forever. It was like they were arguing about something. Probably whether to kill him or not. Steve was about to give up all hope, when he saw a flash of red hair in the corner of his eye. 

In a split second two of the six men were on the ground either unconscious or dead. The others started firing, but Natasha was too quick, and they fell to the floor in pain, joining the other two.

Natasha looked at Steve, who was now getting off the ground, and picking up his shield.

“Thanks--,” he began, but was interrupted by her telling him that they needed to go right now.

As the helicarrier flew away, Steve watched as the warehouse erupted into flames. It all looked like one big fireplace.

“Like I said, a cold place,” she muttered, leaning back into the chair, as she closed her eyes.

That was the second time Natasha Romanoff saved Steve Rogers.

3.  
The third time Natasha saved Steve, it wasn’t really a life or death situation – well maybe to him it sure felt like one, but this wasn’t just some mission, it was his personal life. How he hated that phrase. Isn’t it supposed to be a bad thing when life get too personal? 

Natasha recently started setting him up on dates. He didn’t really see the point because it wasn’t like he had a lot of free time on his hands, but in the little amount he did have, his time spent probably seemed a little pathetic, or sad, or maybe both.

One day Natasha just came up to him in the hall and asked him if he wanted to hang out at a bar nearby. He said yes, and when he got there, she was nowhere to be found. His phone rang with a text message reading: _Couldn’t make it, sent a friend; Jessica from security. You both have a thing for history (;_

After that she started setting him up a lot. There were blind dates, and online dating on some site called Match.com, but frankly Steve wasn’t very interested. Though he kept playing along because Natasha was a very persuasive person.

It was the fourth girl she had set him up with. Her name was Lindsey. She was pretty, and blonde, but all she could seem to talk about was his past. All Steve wanted to do was go and run away from this girl because everything that she was talking about was everything he was trying to forget. Their food came at the Chinese restaurant, just as he excused himself.

In the bathroom he texted Natasha, _How do you politely flee from a date?!?_

She responded, _That bad?_

_Worse,_ he texted.

 _Okay, go back to the table. I’ll be there in five,_ she texted back, and with that he went back the table.

Five minutes later while Steve ate his egg rolls, Natasha walked in with her hair up in a messy bun looking very angry. She fiercely walked over to the table and said, “What the hell do you think you’re doing, Steve? I work late one night, you’re already off mingling with other women?” she practically yelled, causing others to stare at the scene she was creating.

Lindsey looked scared for her life. “I-I had no idea he was seeing someone,” she stuttered.

“Well he isn’t for long,” Natasha said as she grabbed Steve by his shirt, and dragged him out of the restaurant.

Once they were in her corvette and driving away Steve finally spoke. “Thanks,” he said.

“No thankyou. Tony owes me fifty bucks,” she said with one of her grins.

“What – why?” he asked, but all she did was laugh.

4.  
There was red, so much red, but this time it wasn’t just the red of her hair that Steve had grown so accustomed to.

The bullet was met for him, but Natasha just had to go and save him…again. She jumped in front of the drone at the last second and got hit right in the abdomen. The Strike team had the machine disabled as soon as the first shot went off, but it wasn’t soon enough. 

Steve kneeled down by her and started to apply pressure on the wound. Her stomach was a bloody mess, and her eyes were glazed over in pain, her fists clenched as she tried not to cry, or scream, or both. 

“This is definitely the last time I try and save your sorry ass from being killed, Rogers,” she said with clenched teeth, trying to grin, but coughing up blood instead.

“You know, I never asked you to save my life,” he said, trying to joke, and hide the worried expression from his face.

“Can’t you just say th-thankyou like a normal p-person,” she said, but he didn’t get the chance to respond because the medic team were quickly getting her on the stretcher, attaching her to all sorts of machines, and IV’s.

The ambulance drove away just as quick, and he was left all alone with her blood stained on his red, white, and blue uniform. 

Steve waited in the hospital for hours until the doctor came out and told him that she would be fine, and he couldn’t help the breath he released at hearing the good news. He walked into the room she was in, and saw her laying in the bed with tubes and wires all attached to her body. Her red hair looked so out of place with the white scenery. She looked so small; Steve knew that Natasha wasn’t particularly the tallest or biggest person in the world, but the way she carried herself made her seem that way. Now here, as he sat down next to the bed and took her hand in his own, he couldn’t help but notice how small she looked. 

The sky was dark outside the window, and the only noise in the room was his breathing, and the steady beep from the heart machine. 

“Thankyou for saving my life,” Steve whispered.

Natasha’s eyes remained closed, but the hand he was holding squeezed back just a little bit, and that was enough.

5.  
Tall buildings are nice and pretty to look at, but not really when you’re hanging from one, and there’s a thirty story drop.

Steve and Natasha were infiltrating this building, but things got out of hand real fast. The guy they were after, the same guy that SHIELD wanted alive, had ran to the roof of the building. They had followed him, but it was a trap. 

As soon as they got up there they were attacked by twenty some men. After throwing his shield at two guys, one came out of nowhere, nocking him off the side of the building. Normally Steve would have been able to just hoist himself back up there, but now he was hanging off a building, only holding on with one arm because he had already been shot in the shoulder earlier.

He could hear Natasha struggling with the five remaining men. One landed a nasty punch to her jaw, and three to the ribs, as another guy held her in a choke hold, but apparently they forgot about her legs.

A fatal mistake.

All five men were on the ground in seconds groaning in pain. Natasha ran over to Steve, and grabbed his arm to try and pull him up, but he was too heavy, and he was too far off the building for one person to pull him up alone.

“I need backup,” she said frustrated, into her comm.

“Nat, you gotta let go; I’m gonna take us both over,” he said.

“That’s not an option, Steve, just hold on,” she said, gripping tighter to his hands.

She never said his first name. It was always Cap, or Rogers, but never Steve. She tried to pull him up, but it was to no avail. It only made her go father off the edge too.

“It’s okay, Nat, listen to me--,”

“No, I’m not gonna lose you. I haven’t saved you’re ass so many times for it to end like this,” she said, and he could see the unshed tears in her eyes.

Right then a bunch of SHIELD agents busted through the door, and ran over to them, pulling them both up to the roof. Once they got back outside, someone came over to treat Steve’s wounds. He saw Natasha walking over to him, but the thing she did next was unexpected to say the least. 

She kissed him, and then slapped him across the face, and walked away without a word, leaving Steve speechless, but again that wasn’t too hard to do.

+1.  
Natasha was supposed to evacuate people from one building and move them into the next. The second building was supposed to be safer, the bomb was meant for the first one, but that was wrong too.

Steve watched as she led families into the building, and he watched, seconds later as the building collapsed. It all happened so fast, but everything still seemed in slow motion. He got thrown into a nearby car from the force of the explosion, but that didn’t matter. All that mattered was getting those people out of there, getting Natasha out of there, and hopefully not in a body bag.

The smell of smoke, and blood was already in the air, filling his lungs as he made his way into the crumbling building. There were little fires everywhere, and everything was either broken or breaking. 

“Natasha!” he called out, but got no response, so he kept walking. 

Past the lobby, past the kitchen, and there he saw it; a flash of red hair. At first he thought that it was just blood, but when he walked closer he felt his throat drop to his stomach. “Natasha,” he said, but it wasn’t in relief, it was in worry, and fear, and regret.

There was a giant column that was once used to support the building, but was now crushing her body. Steve bent down to check her pulse, and was thankful to find that she had one, it was weak, but there, and that was all he needed for now. 

Her eyes were still shut, but her lips were moving. She was mumbling something about a hospital – a children’s ward, but Steve didn’t know what she was talking about. 

“Nat, I’m going to lift the column off of you to see if you have any other injuries,” he said, as she opened her eyes. The only problem was, her pupils were dilated, and she seemed to be looking straight through Steve instead of at him. 

“I’m sorry,” she mumbled. “I didn’t want them to die. It wasn’t part of the plan.”

“Everything’s going to be okay,” Steve said, despite her delirious behavior, trying to convince himself more than anyone else.

“Steve?” she asked.

“It’s me,” he said. “I’m right here.”

“Y-You have to save them. They w-were supposed to be safe,” she said.

He didn’t know how to respond though, because there were no survivors. Every pulse of any body that was mostly intact was still, and nonexistent. Steve stopped, and looked at her. He tried to see past the all the covers and masks and lies. He looked at the real her, the Natasha that was badass, witty, stubborn, and beautiful in every way, and he knew what he had to do.

“Nat, I need you to count to ten,” he said. It was a technique he learned back in the war. If treating any soldier facing possible fatal injuries, you have them count to ten so they don’t go in shock, or worse.

“1,” he put his hands under the pole that was crushing her chest.

“2,” he slowly started to lift checking for any other damage. 

“3, 4, 5,” the pole was off of her.

Steve waited for the next numbers, as he placed the pole on the ground, but they never came. He looked at her, and his stomach dropped. She was blinking slowly, but she wasn’t focused. Her chest was a bloody mess. _Internal bleeding._ He put his hand to her cheek, and found that she was unusually cold despite the fire spreading all around. 

He took her hand in his own. “Look at me,” he said. “You don’t get to die yet,” his voice cracked. “I haven’t paid you back for all the times you saved my ass.” 

“There’s music. P-people are dancing, but I’m s-so tired,” she mumbled, closing her eyes just a little bit more.

“I’ll dance with you okay. You can teach me how, and Stark will laugh every time I step on your toes,” he said with a sad smile. “Just stay awake a little longer, and it’s a date.”

“That be nice,” she said, but Steve could see her slowly slipping away.

“This is going to hurt, okay, but I want you to tell me what you see; just keep talking,” he said.

“Clint is hitting on s-some waitress, but she isn’t i-interested, and--,” she paused screaming out, as Steve lifted her into his arms.

“What is Tony doing?” Steve asked, trying to keep her talking as he made his way outside the building, trying to avoid corpses.

“T-tony is a-at the bar, and Bruce is trying to g-get the shot glass a-away from his h-hand,” she said, causing Steve to laugh.

They were almost out of the building. He could hear the sirens of the ambulances awaiting them, and he could already smell the fresh air.

“The m-music’s gone,” Natasha said just before her eyes rolled back into her head. 

Panic filled Steve’s mind, as he ran from the building. He crashed through the door, and was momentarily blinded by the light. All of a sudden he started hearing voices, and the voices turned into shouts. EMT’s took Natasha from his arms, and placed her on a stretcher. They placed an oxygen mask over her mouth, started to tie her down to the stretcher.

“What are you doing,” Steve asked, anger surging through his bones, taking up whatever energy he had left. He didn’t want Natasha to wake up confused and in pain restrained to some hospital bed. She hated hospitals enough as it is.

“Captain, we have to do this to patients with head traumas in case of seizures,” said what looked like to be the head EMT. 

Steve nodded his head, as he bit the inside of his cheek. They hooked her up to a heart monitor, and started wheeling her to the back of the ambulance.

“Adult female, mid-twenties, head force trauma, and internal bleeding. Possible swelling in the bra--,” but the EMT was interrupted by the sound of Natasha flat lining. 

Steve started to run towards the scene, as they shocked her with the defibrillator, but he stopped once he felt a firm hand on his shoulder. “There’s nothing you can do,” said the voice of Nick Fury.

He looked as he always did, but there was something about his face that was a little off. His features weren’t as hard and stoic, and his eye was a clouded over in something. Grief? Regret? Loss? Fury looked like he was about to ask something, but was interrupted by the constant “Clear!” that was coming out of the EMT’s mouth. 

After what seemed like hours, but was really minutes, her heart finally started beating. It was weak but enough for now. They loaded her in the ambulance and drove away, leaving nothing but the sound of the siren behind. 

“What the hell happened in there?” asked Fury, but Steve couldn’t speak, he was in shock.

“I-I couldn’t save her,” he said, no louder than a whisper.

“Steve, we both know that she hated being saved – it made her feel weak, and she was anything but that,” said Fury.

Steve knew that he was right, but he couldn’t help feeling responsible for all of this. 

***

Nick drove Steve to the hospital. The ride was silent, but Steve’s heart was pounding so loud that he was almost positive everyone could hear it. 

Once they got to the hospital, Steve basically sprinted out of the car, as soon as it parked. He waited four hours in an uncomfortable plastic chair before the doctor came out. 

“We almost lost her, but she’s going to be fine,” said the doctor to Steve. “She’s in room 204 if you want to see her, but she’s going to be very out of it from all the medication.”

Steve nodded his head in appreciation he made his way to room 204. In there he saw Natasha laying in the hospital bed. She was awake, but barely.

“Hey you,” he said, sitting down in the chair besides her.

“You look like shit,” she said lazily, with her eyes half open.

“You don’t look much better,” he said with a playful smile.

For a while no one spoke, until Natasha said, “the doctor said that you saved my life.”

“Well it’s about time, isn’t it?” he said.

“Thanks,” she responded. “For everything.”

“Get some rest,” he said. “I’ll be here when you wake up,” and he was.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading, and feel free to request any fics below:)


End file.
